Once I found a narrative, though, I had no more realizations about the album. Gradually, this revealed a strange narrative (which, to me, compliments Van's own assertion that Astral Weeks is some sort of rock opera). I spent several hundred listens trying to make emotional, if logical, sense of the lyrics. I have listened to Astral Weeks many, many times (probably as many as Nick Hornby has listened to "Thunder Road") and I find some new thrill in each listen. Writing for the Manchester Guardian, Matthew Collin commented on Van Morrison's Astral Weeks: "The record was released in 1968 as political violence escalated, but Morrison reminisced about a more innocent time, recounting the sights and sounds of a bygone life while escaping into his imagination, an oasis of romantic reverie." An object of personal obsession, I have read many things about Astral Weeks, but none connected the album to Northern Ireland's "Troubles," and despite my knowledge of the album and Van's origins, I never made the connection myself. Recently, the arts organization Factotum published a book entitled Belfast Songs, a collection of musings on the city and those who choose to sing about it. Astral Weeks and the Troubles by Kevin Parker (April 2003)
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